chas_matthews
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Posts posted by chas_matthews
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<p>No I don't miss it! Not having a pop-up flash was one of the PLUS features that I liked about the 5dii.<br>
Reasons:<br>
- rid of extra weight I don't want to carry around,<br>
- rid of flimsy piece of plastic that can get broken,<br>
- can't accidentally hit pop-up button and have it come up when I don't want it,<br>
- one less place for water to get inside the body,<br>
- probably reduced cost of body,<br>
- longer battery life (when I do choose to use a flash),<br>
- shorter flash recycling time (when I do choose to use a flash),<br>
- etc..</p>
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<p>No I don't miss it! Not having a pop-up flash was one of the PLUS features that I liked about the 5dii.<br>
Reasons:<br>
- rid of extra weight I don't want to carry around,<br>
- rid of flimsy piece of plastic that can get broken,<br>
- can't accidentally hit pop-up button and have it come up when I don't want it,<br>
- one less place for water to get inside the body,<br>
- probably reduced cost of body,<br>
- longer battery life (when I do choose to use a flash),<br>
- shorter flash recycling time (when I do choose to use a flash),<br>
- etc..</p>
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<p>Bruce, it was said by Bill Bernard in "Life is not fair--and everything else they forgot to teach you in school"</p>
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<p>It is definitely possible to combine them, but there needs to be some other way to hold them in place other than the friction fit that is normally used simply because the space they normally fit is occupied by the org.<br>
Can't get into the other site, so I'll take your word for it.</p>
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<p>We just bought two 1620s with the lid organizer so I can tell you what we've found so far, but not what the experience of using the combination will be like.<br>
First, mounting of the organizer is a bit of a pain, requiring drilling 6 small holes and then screwing the org to the lid. The biggest problem so far has been that a few of the mounting screws for the org required a very thin screwdriver in order to reach the screw by putting the driver through the mesh of an org pocket. Not really a big deal.<br>
Once mounted there is about 1/4 inch of space behind the org. This might allow a bit of "give" if thing get bounced too much. The foam will fit in the case with the organizer in place and empty. We've been wondering about coming up with an attachment system, but haven't so far and are having doubts about whether it will fit once the org is full. I expect that we will jam the foam in anyway if we have to ship a case.<br>
The divider system seems pretty much like those in most backpacks except there are no spare dividers or other specialized shapes.<br>
The bays for the wheels protrude into the two sections in the outside of the bottom. Don't know whether that will be a problem yet.<br>
The cases are incredibly solid and not as heavy as I expected. The orgs aren't as well made as I expected, but are quite acceptible. Looking forward to years of using these.</p>
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<p>I use an Acratech leveling base. Its limited to something like 15 degrees of adjustment in any direction but it is relatively light and locks very solidly.</p>
<p><a href="http://acratech.net/home.php?cat=2">http://acratech.net/home.php?cat=2</a></p>
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<p>I have the "Industry Embarassment" straps on my 20, 50, and 5. Black, Red-cammo, and Black.<br>
They are easily useable on the shoulder and cross-body. The extra contour piece is most noticeable when used round the neck -- sometimes bugs me a bit.<br>
The straps are generally comfortable and secure and they don't slide around when on the shoulder.The only "problem" with the straps is that I sometimes want to be able to make them shorter than their shortest position.</p>
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<p>Canon has never made a split screen for the 20D, so the real question is what make is it and why is it so cheap.</p>
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<p>The only problem that I've seen with the standard hood for the 17-85 is when using the built-in flash with the lens at or near 17 the hood casts a shadow. But no vignetting that I've ever noticed.</p>
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<p>No experience, but, the L-bracket shown in the online photos does seem very light-weight.</p>
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<p>We have used the RRS L-brackets on our 20D's for several years and currently use them on our 50D and 5DII's as well.<br>
The longest time I have held on to one is about 10 hours at a long wedding/reception combo event with no issues other than the total weight and general fatigue. But, we use the hand strap with our battery grips, so this may not be the same as your experience.<br>
I've been trying to picture how you would get nerve and/or tendon damage from using an L-bracket, so I've gone to the equipment locker to pull some stuff out to look at... I still don't get it. The RRS brackets really don't have any corners as such, everything is rounded and smooth.<br>
As for putting metal corners in "the palm of my right hand". Even holding the grip with the L-bracket attached in the vertical position there are no corners, only a grip that is about 1/4 inch thicker. I would love to see a photo of how you're holding this. (even after looking at the D2x bracket on the RRS website I don't see the corners you're referring to)<br>
Using the camera tethered is a bit of a nuisance with the bracket on, but the cutouts for the cables are more than adequate.<br>
If you had no probs with the small bracket, you shouldn't have any probs with the big one, provided that your hand is big enough to go around the grip/bracket combination. Other than the extra weight I don't know why you'd ever worry about using one of these.</p>
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<p>Yes, it landed in a soft area of grass -- essentially a pasture.<br>
Not every lens is built as well as the old Nikkor 50 f1.4, or your friend's Tokina... I dropped a current gen Canon 50 f1.4 with filter and lens hood from about two feet onto a carpeted floor. No visible damage of any kind, but it wouldn't focus, cost $140 to repair. And, despite essentially no use at all during the following year, stopped focusing again -- it's on its way back to Canon.</p>
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<p>I know this isn't a contest, but I did once drop one of my Nikon F's from about 700 feet while taking aerial photos back in the 1970's.<br>
The camera was slightly damaged: cracked skylight filter, lost lens shade, tiny dent in top plate of camera where removable prism shifted slightly. That's all. After removing the cracked filter it was used to take pictures of the group who had helped to find it.<br>
My K10 on the other hand has never been dropped off anything. 8 )</p>
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<p>I too have an RRS PCL-1. Rather than mounting it directly on the tripod I have mine on a Acratech Leveling base. This allows leveling when needed and about 10 degrees of off level.<br>
I could have used a ball head, but this is lighter.<br>
The effect of having the camera off-center is not as severe as you might expect and actually puts the center of gravity of the camera and lens assembly more central on the tripod than just putting the camera and lens on a ball head.</p>
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<p>I couldn't find one that I liked at a price I wanted to pay, so I bought a used Manfrotto 190x, replaced the center column with the short version (190xccsb), then shortened each of the leg sections by 5.25 inches.<br>
The end result is a tripod that weighs about 1/3 less and stands about 12 inches high with the legs at the first angle and about 10 1/2 at the second. Total cost $125.<br>
This was amazingly easy to do, relatively cheap, and produced an extremely solid little tripod.</p>
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<p>If we're talking about the VR movie aspect of Gigapan, consider using the VR capabilities built into Quicktime.<br>
There's a pretty comprehensive list of software that stiches and VR's a series of photos at<br>
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<p>I can't comment on the proximity of the stations in the south to things that you would like to photograph; however a Britrail pass goes a long way toward removing problems with fares and timeing. Just Google Britrail to get the details.<br>
If not a pass, just go to the local station and book a ticket the day before to get much better pricing than buying your ticket the day of.<br>
In Southampton consider a day visit to the Hillier Gardens and the Exbury Gardens. Not the wild coastal landscapes but readily manageable from in town.</p>
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Your problem may not be the card... I had very similar results with a Canon that had a connector problem a couple of years ago.
Have you verified the operation of the camera with another memory card?
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"Stay away from using the old Vivitars unless you use a "safe sync"." This is absolutely true if you are buying OLD Vivitars; however, the new versions (i.e. current production) are completely safe. Having said that, I agree with David, if you can find a way to afford it buy the 580. If not the Vivitars make great slave units when you're ready to play with multi-light setups.
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The part of your question that makes it hard to answer is the word "best". The Canon 580 is probably the best general on-camera flash, but if you don't need all of the bells and whistles look at the current Vivitar 285HV from
At $89.95 this is significantly cheaper than it was back in the 1970's when I bought my first.
Also take a look at
http://strobist.blogspot.com/?
and learn about some of the ways to use small strobes...
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Just to confuse things further... I have done work for our local church pro bono, covering events like the choir concert and the annual variety show; but if people want prints/enlargements for their own use I charge my normal commercial rate. I never give away the copyright on the images, but do grant non-exclusive right to reproduce for non-commercial purposes to allow use on web-sites, newsletters and so on.
I am also a partner in an IT consulting company and have bid on work for the church, but am not prepared to do the work free.
The difference? I have convinced myself that the photography puts the images and my name in front of a wide audience of potential clients. This has proven to be the case and to date no one who has approached me to do a photography gig on the basis of seeing pics at the church has ever asked for a discount from my normal rate.
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From: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=141&modelid=14998
"Speedlite 580EX II
Item Code: 1946B002
Available Spring 2007
Further development of Canon's flagship Speedlite has led to the production of the 580 EX II. This is the premier Speedlite for all photographers, including professionals. Newly designed to match with the EOS-1D Mark III in terms of improved dust- and water-resistance, body strength, and the ability to control flash functions and settings from the camera menu (EOS-1D Mark III only). Other features include improved communication reliability through its direct contacts, and recycling time is both 20% shorter than the 580EX and is completely inaudible.
-Approx. 20% faster recycling time compared to 580EX;
-Superior build quality, including a metal foot for higher rigidity;
-Max. Guide No. 58 at 105mm setting (GN 190, feet);
-Auto conversion of flash coverage with compatible digital SLR cameras;
-White Balance info communicated instantly to compatible digital SLR cameras;
-Full swivel, 180? in either direction;
-AF-assist beam, compatible with all AiAF points on every EOS SLR;
-Dust- and water- resistance to match the EOS-1D Mark III."
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Lots of interesting features, but how about Hilight Tone Priority?
"This new feature extends the dynamic range of highlights by about one stop and improves gradation within high light areas. By expanding the range from the correct exposure level(18% gray) to the maximum allowable highlight level, the gradation from the grays to the highlights becomes smoother and loss in highlight detail is minimized. If [C.Fn II-3;1: Enable] is set, the settable ISO speed range will be ISO 200- 3200. The display will show "2oo" with the zeros in smaller characters. Depending on shooting conditions, noise in the shadow areas may increase slightly"
It's unclear how this feature actually works, but the idea of being able to select preservation of highlights as an option is pretty cool.
Macro/Tripod work w/ 5D Mark II Inconvenient Setup...
in Canon EOS Mount
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